The Quiet Stories

I haven’t written in nearly two months because I’ve been searching for a story I can’t find. I wanted to find news reports about white people standing up to the internment of their Japanese-American friends and neighbors. I haven’t found any.

I grew up in Monterey County, California, where a little over thirty years before my birth, the government forced Japanese Americans to assemble at the racetrack and fairgrounds for internment. Most lost everything. Southern California’s Ralph Lazo, the American teen of Mexican and Irish descent who went with his high school classmates to internment, is still the only story I’ve found of non-Japanese-American resistance.

Maybe it’s because the stories weren’t safe to be recorded when they happened.

While researching my McGrew ancestors in Ohio, I found an 1892 interview of James C. McGrew, in which he recounted the Underground Railroad route from Martins Ferry to Smithfield, Ohio. The interview includes a list of people who aided in the line, “mostly Quakers,” and including Finley B. McGrew, a “Conservative [who] remained a Whig and was elected from Jefferson County as representative in 1846 over [Joseph H.] Cope who was ultra abolitionist in his views.”

James C. McGrew recounted an incident in Meigs County:

“Some slaves ran off from Virginia, and of course, knew where to go to. There was a General Brown—a drover—all cattle had to be driven to the West in those days across the mountains—and this man Brown it is said had so sonorous a voice that without much exertion to could from one hill give his order distinctly to his head drover on the next hill across the valley. Well, this General Brown lived a few miles out from Pomeroy (about new Albany (should think though I would not be sure) and to him came these runaways, two or three in number and he took care of them.

Some Virginians came hunting them the next day on some fine blooded horses and they came to General Brown to ask him for information of their whereabouts. “Well,” said General Brown, “I cannot tell you where they are, but you had better get off and put up your horses and get to bed early as to get an early start tomorrow.” In the morning the horses were found ringing wet and tired, a fact which caused much wonderment and talk. The truth is that the Virginian’s (sic) fine horses had been used to transport the negroes as far as possible from Brown’s place so as to get back by daylight. After the horses had been allowed to rest a little the Virginians began their hunt and hunted all day and they were taken up all the hollws (sic) (and gullies) but the right one, and the negroes got off safely into Canada.”

McGrew noted “These men—these Abolitionists—did not fear anything. They believed it was their duty to help the slaves get their freedom, for them life and liberty were great things.”

While we look with hope at the videos and stories of people resisting ICE, there are thousands of others quietly resisting as well. I hope that when it is safe, their stories are recorded.

 Sources:

James C. McGrew, Esq. Columbus, Ohio. Interviewer unknown. 19 Mar 1892. Typed notes held by Melanie Proctor, El Cerrito, California. 2025. The document was found in an online family tree; the original source is unknown. There are handwritten notations on the document, which are not repeated here.

Densho Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.densho.org : 2025.

@cajunblue.bsky.social. “This woman tries to call the family of the man being disappeared and ICE will not allow her to get a phone number. One of the ‘undercover’ mobsters nearly backed into her.” Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/cajunblue.bsky.social/post/3lusx3xg3xs26 : posted July 27, 2025.

@johnnybarbu.bsky.social. “#ICE Agents Tear Down Cameras And Break Doors And Windows At Restaurant in Burbank.” Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/johnnybarbu.bsky.social/post/3lvw35tpnvc2c : posted 8 April 2025.

Varner, Natasha. “Sold, Damaged, Stolen, Gone: Japanese American Property Loss During WWII.” Densho Encyclopedia. https://densho.org/catalyst/sold-damaged-stolen-gone-japanese-american-property-loss-wwii/. 4 Apr 2017.

Helfand, Zach. “ICE Agents Invade a Manhattan Little League Field.” The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/28/ice-agents-invade-a-manhattan-little-league-field. 21 Jul 2025.